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DELIVERED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ON THE EVENING 
OF FEBRUARY 26, 1827, . 



REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE 



f RELIEF OF THE GREEKS. 



REV. GREGORY T. BEDELL, A. M, 

Rector of St. Andrew's Charch, Philadelpi.ia, 



^ 



PHILADELPHIA: 
I'RINTKD AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STAVEI.Y, 

No. 99, South Second street. 

1827. 



Et>t H^nuHt of tide mSfKtt^n. 



DELIVERED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ON THE EVENING • 
OF FEBRUARY 26, 1827, 



REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE 



RELIEF OF THE GREEKS. 



-^ 



BY TMl!: h^ 

REV. GREGORY T/BEDELL, A.M. 

Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Philadelphia. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STAVELY, 
'■' Xo. 99, South Second street.. 

1837. 



3^ 



Extracts from the Correspondence of the Greek 
Committee. 



Philadelphia^ Jan. 5, 1 827. 

Reverend Sir — It is by the direction of the General Com- 
mittee, appitinted by our fellow citizens, to take measures for* 
affording some prompt aid to the Greeks, and in their behalf, 
we have the pleasure to address this note to you. 

The cause which this oppressed and suffering people have 
30 long prosecuted with unequalled constancy and heroism — 
is it not the cause of Christianity not less than Liberty ? 

Small aggressions — involving essential principles of interest 
or honour — often provoke Nations to resort to the extreme 
measure of redress. Assistance may be yielded to those vvlio 
suffer by fire or deluge, by famine or pestilence — unless to 
these be superadded, more insupportable than all^the tyranny^ 
of the oppressor; but then, though he be the Turk, and Chrii^ 
Hans be the oppressed — efficient will not, and charitable Jjj^iu 
any shape or of any kind, cannot be granted by the 
ment of a Christian people, lest it may give occasion 
brage, and endanger one branch of our commercial pursuits! 

We leave these matters, however, to the decision of those 
to whom it rightfully belongs, not without our own hopes and 
prepossessions. 

But to give food and raiment to the hungry and the naked, 
to the aged, the women and the children, this is a privilege, in 
which, as individuals, we may surely be permitted to indulge 
without violating social duty or international law, and without 
offending in any way, against Religion or Morality. 

It is with this view that our fellow citizens have consulted, 
and the Committee are. consequently, taking their measures, 
and it is hoped that by the opening of the navigation of the 
Delaware, charity will have placed at their disposal the means 
of despatching at least one ship with a suitable cargo for thr 
Mediterranean. 



)leJUJii 
n oT'tfTh" 



To the Committee for the relief of the Greeks, 

Gentlemen — If the discourse which was preached at your 
solicitation, and of which jou have taken such favourable no- 
tice, can in the least be' made useful in advancing the inter- 
ests of the unhappy people, "our brethren," for whom 
your sympathies have been so nobly excited, and your ex- 
ertions so vigorously and perseveringly made— it is yours, to 
do with as you please. With it you have my best wishes and 
prayers for the success of the cause itself. 

I remain, Gentlemen, yours, &c. 

G. T. BEDELL. 

March Isf, 1827. 



A DISCOURSE, ^c. 



There are none perhaps in this assembly who 
cannot call to mind those few, and exquisite lines 
in which the present condition of Greece is so 
truly, so poetically, so painfully represented by one, 
the sole merit of whose life, was his devotion to her 
cause.* Yes, my friends, true it is, that the fair sky 
of Greece, is just as blue — her vallies, so far as na- 
ture's loveliness is unalterable by the rudeness of mor- 
tal touch, are still as lovely, and her mountains are 
just as much distinguished for their grandeur and sub- 
limity of scene, as when her poets sung ; her philo- 
sophers taught, and her orators stimulated the people 
to deeds of heroic achievement. But what avails all 
this? The hand of violence hath written on all that 
remains of Greece, " the glory has departed ;" and 
the classic traveller, as he gazes on her yet blue sky, 
as he treads her yet green vallies, or as he climbs her 
yet unmoved mountains, feels heavily on his heart the 
death-chill which hath settled on all that is around 
him ; and all that he beholds of Greece, is as the faded 
beauty of some interesting corpse, from which the 
living principle hath fled,— yet lovely in its death. 

I may not, on an occasion like the present, occupy 
much of your time in speaking of the early history of 
Greece. This is a subject which would kindle a dif- 

* Note A. 



ferent enthusiasm from that now desirable. Few of 
the practical purposes of benevolence would be an- 
swered by the mere awakening of those recollections 
which have well nigh slept, since the laws, the phi- 
losophy, the letters, the poetry of Greece, formed the 
delightful topics most familiar to the student, ere the 
sober realities of life broke him off from what may be 
termed the romance of her history Still I know not 
how my subject may be suitably brought before your 
attention, unless there should at least be some rapid 
sketch. Greece, from the period in which fable ceas- 
ed to mingle with her history, had been constrained 
to deal with tyrants and oppressors ; and has never 
possessed the elements of strength, either moral or 
political. This has arisen from the division into small 
and independent republics, so discordant in their prin- 
ciples as to preclude the possibility of a permanent con- 
federation. There were days of glory, and there were 
deeds of heroism marking the separate histories of 
Athens, of Sparta, and of Thebes, which will ever dwell 
in the memory of man; but had these separate republics 
known the benefits of a federal government like ours, 
and possessed the wisdom and the virtue requisite to 
its formation, they might have effectually resisted 
every attempt at their subjugation. In the early 
history of Greece there is little to be found but real 
bondage, though sometimes disguised under the spe- 
cious appearances of freedom. If Harmodius and 
Aristogiton, could succeed in stimulating one of these 
people to throw off the yoke of the PisistratidsB, yet 
how soon is Pericles a monarch, though he bore no 
such magnificent title. Civil wars prevented the en- 
joyment of real liberty, and ravaged the land, till the 
battle of Cheronea brought Greece under the domi- 



iiion of the king of Macedon. Then the royal suc- 
cessor of Philip made her sons subservient to his con- 
quest of the world. But masters in those days were 
soon changed, and from the successors of Alexander^ 
Greece passed under the dominion of the victorious 
Romans. From the year 146 before the Christian 
era, to the year 1453 of that era, when the Eastern 
empire was totally destroyed by Mahomet the II. , in 
the capture of Constantinople, Grecian liberty was a 
shadowy thing. But it was during these 1500 years, 
that the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ fell on subjugat- 
ed Greece, and through evil and through good, be- 
came at last the predominant religion of the empire. 
The historian Gibbon, seems to have forgotten, for a 
moment, the bitterness of his antipathy to Christianity, 
when he so eloquently describes the fall of Constanti- 
nople ; and, with a singular felicity of thought, calls 
the last speech of Constantine Palselogus, ^^ the fune- 
ral oration of the Roman empire." With Constanti- 
nople, Greece and Epirus fell to the conquering 
Turks. The 29th of May, in the year of our Lord 
1453, was a memorable epoch, for on that day Ma- 
homet the II. passed in triumph through the gate of 
St. Romanus, and the Turkish Meuzzin ascended the 
loftiest turret of the church of St. Sophia, to call the 
conquering people to prayer in the name of God, and 
the Prophet of Mecca. Then was that glory of the 
world completely desecrated. On that day the Imaiim 
preached in a hitherto Christian pulpit, and the con- 
queror himself performed the namaz of prayer and 
thanksgiving, on the great altar where the Christian 
mysteries had been so lately celebrated before the 
last of the Caesars. From the church of St. Sophia, 
Mahomet went to the desolate mansion of an hundred 



10 

successors of Constantine the Great ; but it had already 
been stripped of every monument of royalty. As the 
conqueror saw the desolation, a melancholy reflection 
forced itself unon his mind on the vicissitudes of hu- 
man greatness, and he called to memory the lines of 
the Persian poet, "The spider has woven her web 
in the imperial palace, and the owl hath sung her 
watch song on the towers of Afrasiab."* 

From the year 1453, A. D. Greece has bowed to 
the horrible yoke of Turkish domination, compared 
to the cruelty of which, the savage ferocity of the wild 
beasts of the forest, is absolute tenderness. From the 
period alluded to, a dark and dismal cloud has hung 
upon this unhappy land, which for no less than four 
centuries has excluded the glorious light of freedom. 
During this long period one feeble effort was made by 
a gigantic power to rescue Greece from this dominion ; 
but it failed. Had not the close of the tragedy de- 
veloped so much perfidy and horror, we might amuse 
ourselves with the idea that the descendants of the 
barbarous Scythians, scarcely then less barbarous^ 
than their fathers, should have felt the classic desire of 
restoring the republics of Solon and Lycurgus. But 
this was Russian policy, under the Czarina Catharine, 
and she found no difficulty in rousing the dispirited 
Greeks by the promise of effectual succours. When 
the looked for fleet of Russia was seen, as it came round 
the tenarium promontoriumj freedom seemed to ride 
on the very breeze, and for a moment the Greek 
thought that the day of his emancipation had arrived. 
But Russian succour was as deceptive as the south 
wind, which "^^ softly blowing,'^ enticed the shipmaster, 

'* Note B. 



11 

whose vessel carried Paul, to leave the haven in which 
they feared to have been forced to winter. But the 
deceitful south wind soon gave place to the fierce 
'^Euroclydon/' and shipwreck was the consequence. 
The peace of Kainargi, hastily concluded between 
Catharine and the Turks, left the poor deluded pa- 
triots in the jaws of the lion ; and the vengeance of the 
Turk was terrible. Posterity will ever reprobate the 
merciless policy which could have induced that Em- 
press to have left to their fate so helpless and so confid- 
ing a people ; and little less will posterity execrate the 
present policy of civilized nations, calling themselves 
Christian ; — for perfidy, is scarcely more criminal than 
the cold and heartless indifference with which this 
bloody tragedy has been contemplated. For nearly 
one hundred years had the silence of slavery again 
settled on the land of Greece, when in the year 1820, 
Ypsilanti, a member of one of the most illustrious 
families of the Fanar, and a connexion of the Emperor 
Alexander, raised the standard of liberty His plans 
were ill concerted, and they failed. But an impulse 
was given, which, to this date, has cnrried the Greeks 
through six years of strife and of suffering, with vari- 
ous success. 

I have pursued this brief history, my brethren, 
merely to pave the way for the considerations which 
will follow. Refused the aids of the government, on 
grounds of political expediency, the poor and sufli'er- 
ing Greeks have turned to the people of our country; 
and their claims have been duly recognized, and their 
wants have, for the most part, been met with a cheer- 
ful and a generous impulse. Among the means which 
an active committee of our philanthopic citizens, have 
devised to accomplish the sacred purposes of this be- 



12 

iievolence is, that from the pulpit an effort should be 
iliade as a closing appeal upon the subject. On this 
interesting business I stand before you at this time, 
and the hope is indulged^ that at least some little ex- 
pression of your bounty may be added to the sums 
already collected. 

To fix your attention, and to prevent on my 
own part, too much wandering, I have selected as 
a text suitable for the present occasion, the words 
of the wise man in his Proverbs, 17th chapter, and 
17th verse, 

'' A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is 
born for adversity." 

There is an intensity in this language which is 
worthy of remark :— a friend, says the writer, loveth 
at all times — is the same in sickness as in health — the 
same in adversity as in prosperity. Greece has no 
friend, according to this definition ; for to accommo- 
date a passage from the scriptures, "among all her 
lovers, there is none to comfort her ;" and many of 
her frie?ids, have been like those of David, when he 
prayed that ^'^ their precious balms might not break 
his headP^ But there is still further intensity in the 
terms of the text, " a brother is born for adversity ;" 
as if it was, on the authority of inspiration, the purpose 
of our existence to help each other in the time of need; 
and as if a departure from the spirit of this saying, at- 
tempts to alter the design of God, in the relationship 
of man to man. This, my friends, I wish you to re- 
mark as the hinging point of my discourse; and in fol- 
lowing out the subject, it will be my object to prove, 
that the Greeks are emphatically to be called our 
BRETHREN ; and if brethren, then, by an irresistible 
conclusion, are we born for their adversity. 

* Note C. 



13 
They are our brethren, \ 

I. Because they are struggling for a similar political 
existence. 

II. Because they profess the same religion, and 

III. Because they are in a condition of distress and 
suffering. 

I. The Greeks are our brethren because they are 
struggling for a similar political existence. 

It would be little indeed for me to say on this occa- 
sion, that the present condition of the Greeks resem- 
bles ours at that most eventful period, when our 
fathers threw the yoke from their shoulders, and de- 
termined to be free. Our grievances, at the period 
alluded to, contrasted with those under which they 
have groaned for centuries, would not authorize the 
comparison of a feather to the weight of the world 
itself. The difference is almost infinite, so great is 
the aggravation of their condition. Indeed, terms have 
not yet been invented, of sufficient strength, to express 
the horrors of their state of vassalage ; and fortunate- 
ly for ourselves, though unfortunately for them, our 
minds cannot form an idea of wretchedness which 
might reach the woful character of their slavery. I 
have avoided touching upon the arguments which 
may be used in justification of the Greek revolt;* 
and I may not indulge in reflections on the policy 
which could justify us as a people in looking calm- 
ly on the butchery of our brethren, struggling 
as they are for a political existence. We have set 
them the example of a well constituted and flourish- 
ing republic ; and it is not without reason tliat Greece 
turns to us her supplicating eye : for it is her wish to 



14 

ti'avel in the path to political eminence which America 
hath trodden, and to establish a government based on 
the same great principles. Alas for Greece, that 
four hundred years of merciless oppression, has pro- 
duced a far different people from what our fathers 
were ; she has not the same moral elements of liberty 
which belonged to them at the period of our revolu- 
tionary struggle. But she aims at the point to which 
we have attained ; and it appears to me that America, 
by the example she has set, and by the posture of po- 
litical importance she has assumed, is the natural ally 
of every nation which would release itself from the 
heavy hand of foreign oppression ; and the natural 
guardian of every persecuted people. This is a doc- 
trine, which however adventurous its mention may ap- 
pear at present, will, ere long, be commonly received. 
To this point, the political world is at present rapidly 
advancing ; and at this very moment, a state of things 
is exhibited from which no other result is within the 
reach of rational conception. Let any individual of libe- 
ral and cultivated mind observe the aspect of the age, 
and he will not fail to be convinced, that the whole 
civilized world is dividing itself into two great parties ; 
the elements of liberty and knowledge are arraying 
themselves against those of despotism and ignorance ; 
and the convulsion which will be occasioned when they 
come, as they must come into contact, will make the 
older governments of Europe totter to their fall. It 
was not without wisdom that the British statesman, in 
his late triumphant speech before the commons of his 
country, alluded to the next European war that should 
occur, as a war of opinion ; in which no means would 
be left unemployed, to fix the principles of civil liber- 
ty on their firmest foundations. The work in a mea- 



15 

sure began with us, and see how the United States of 
South America have followed in the inarch of inde- 
pendence. Come what else there may, that country 
will never again be permanently governed by a des- 
pot. Greece is striving to follow in this path ; and I 
argue her ultimate success, on the principle that these 
elements of liberty and knowledge are in motion ; and 
if they work silently and slowly, their progress is not 
the less conspicuous and certain. Think me not 
visionary, as well as bold, my friends, for I believe the 
explanation of the whole will adapt itself to the most 
contracted capacity. The older governments of Eu- 
rope are not suited to the existing state of things, 
and every thing which bears the remotest relationship 
to despotism, is so incongruous with the present ad- 
vance of society, that it ?7iust give way to the force of 
opinion. The governments of Europe are all but 
modifications of the feudal system, whose leading vital 
principle, is the depression of the lower orders of 
society. But this can no longer be accomplished. 
There are three great acting causes, which, by pre- 
venting the continuance of this depression, will de- 
stroy the vital principle of the system. The first of 
these, which will serve to elevate the lower orders, 
hitherto in most European governments kept down ; 
is the rapid advance of commerce, and those other 
means, which enable them to rise in the scale of wealth. 
The second is the mighty influence of the press, *^ a 
lever more powerful than that which Archimedes 
wished, for it will serve to lift the mass of the people 
from their present moral and intellectual degradation. 
The last of these great causes, is the spirit of bold in- 
quiry, and deep investigation of principles^ which the 

* Note E. 



i 16 

press must produce; for when the minds of men are 
Enlightened by the thoughts and the deductions of 
Others,, they will thinkj.and they will form conclusions of 
tiieir own. All this is so totally irreconcileable with the 
f ery first principles of feudal subjection, that a change 
ip political relations is the necessary consequence. 
"^ow these causes are in constant and increasing ope- 
jation, to bring the classes of society more on the level 
j)f equality ; and whenever this convulsion of opinion 
shall occur, then must triumph the principles of ra- 
tional liberty. As there is the array of liberty and 
knowledge, against despotism and ignorance, America 
must make common cause with one or with the other ; 
for it were folly to imagine the possibility of a neutral 
attitude. Consistency, no less than the irresistible im- 
pulse of opinion, will rank our country on the side of 
those principles upon which our own happy govern- 
ment is founded. For reasons such as these, I hesi- 
tate not to declare, that the Greeks are our brethren ; 
and if this be so, we are born for their adversity. 
On such grounds too, I might argue the lawfulness, 
and the absolute duty of public interference, but 
this makes no part of my present purpose. The 
People of the land, in their individual capacities, 
may feel the importance of these considerations ; and 
by acting on this principle, even if their assistance 
goes no further than food and raiment to the famish- 
ing and the naked, show how justly they appreciate 
the relationship in which, as a free and independent 
nation, we stand to the struggling, persecuted Greeks. 

II. The Greeks are our brethren because they pro- 
fess the same religion, and we are thus bound to them 
as by the tie of a common Christianity. This is a 



17 

consideration which few estimate as they should, for 
it constitutes one of the most dear and interesting re- 
lationships which can possibly be imagined, inasmuch 
as it brings the sanctions of another world to bear 
their weight upon the efforts of the present. It is 
true, indeed, that Christianity among the Greeks has 
lost almost all its characteristic traits. Superstition 
hath covered up the fair face of religion with a hideous 
and disgusting veil ; and the doctrines of the Cross, 
which constitute the life as well as the beauty and the 
sublimity of the faith delivered to the saints, are 
scarcely heard. Unmeaning forms and childish cere- 
monies, have been substituted for *^ the truth as it 
is in Jesus ;" and the Greeks, except when some mis- 
sionary from the land of gospel light and liberty, 
leaves among them the unadulterated word of God, 
have few opportunities of separating that which is 
*• precious," from that which is ^' vile." But the faith 
of that branch of the church of Christ, to which, in 
the Providence of God, the Greek is attached, is not 
to be judged, by its condition in a land, so trodden un- 
der foot and destroyed. In the essentials of religion, 
the Eastern church long maintained her purity; and 
when we consider the untoward circumstances, and 
the troublous times, into the very midst of which that 
church has been cast, we rather wonder at the purity 
which remains, than at the loss which has been sus- 
tained. So far as the authorized standards of the 
Eastern church are concerned, there is in their funda- 
mental principles, a remarkable coincidence with the 
Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homilies of the church, 
whose minister is it my privilege to be.^' Founded on 

* Note r. 

c 



18 

the profession of a common Christianity then, the 
Greeks are our brethren ; and a nearer or more 
endearing relationship it were impossible to establish. 
On this ground, how are we interested in the issue of 
the desperate struggle in which they are engaged. 
The question which depends on the issue, is not the 
progress^ but the existence, of Christianity among 
them. It is whether the Cross of the Redeemer, or 
the crescent of the impostor of Mecca, shall triumph 
over this interesting land. It is said, with no less 
eloquence than truth, in the pamphlet, which, by 
the untiring zeal of your committee, has been dis- 
tributed largely among your citizens, that '^ it is 
not merely a struggle for freedom and existence to 
the Greek : it is a contest between the odious and 
disgusting deformities of Islamism and the religion 
ive profess It is the cause of the crescent against 
the Cross ; and shall we make no effort in favour of 
the latter ? Shall ive do nothing to sustain that re- 
ligion, ivhichj in the darkest moments of national 
calamity and of indvidual distress, has sustained 
our fathers and ourselves P That religion which 
oifers the best consolations for this life, and the bright- 
est hopes for the next ? We have seen, in the course 
of this revolution, how this religion has been out- 
raged. The very name of Christiaji has been, every 
where in Turkey, a title to insult, to chains, and to 
death. It is a virtue there, to kill 'a Christian 
dog.'' The Turk has known full well how dear is 
this religion to the Greek. He has often seen him 
become its martyr. In the desolation of his country, 
in the entire destruction of her political, civil, and 
social institutions, it was in the bosom of the church 
alone that the miserable remnant of this unfortunate 



19 

nation of Christians found refuge. It was here her 
mangled and bleeding members were gathered, bound 
up, and comforted. It was here alone they enjoyed 
even the semblance of community. It was here, 
amidst the destruction of every thing else, the wretch- 
ed Greek sought, in his accumulated wrongs and suf- 
ferings, support and consolation for the present, and 
hopes for the future. B'lt the inexorable Turk, hav- 
ing stripped him of every thing on earth, would also 
rob him of his hopes in heaven. It was, therefore, 
that in this last sanctuary of suffering humanity, her 
holiest feelings were outraged. We have seen the 
sacredness of this sanctuary violated. We have seen 
its highest officers — its venerable patriarch; and his 
assisting bishops, while performing the most solemn 
rites of our holy religion, upon one of its highest fes« 
tivals, while kneeling before her sacred altars, and in 
the very act of breathing a prayer to heaven for their' 
bleeding country, we have seen that venerable pa- 
triarch and those bishops, sacrilegiously torn from their 
altars, and, in the very robes and insignia of their 
office, and at the very gates of their temple, ignomi- 
niously executed. For three days we have seen their 
bodies hanging exposed to the scoffs and outrages of 
infidels and fanatics ; and then, after being dragged, 
ignominiously dragged, through the streets of Con- 
stantinople, thrown like dogs into the sea, or to the 
vultures of heaven." 

It is impossible for a Christian to be at a loss to com- 
prehend how deeply the religion of our blessed Re- 
deemer is interested in this conflict. The creed of the 
impostor Mahomet never has, and never will endure 
the rivalry of a purer faith. The unceasing effort 
of their Turkish masters has been to root from among 



20 

the Greeks every principle of Christianity, because it 
opposed its loveliness and purity, to their degrading 
and sensual superstition. And it is wonderful, ; for 
in it we must read, even in a dark dispensation, the 
determination of God, not to leave himself without 
a witness;) that under so many years of ceaseless 
persecution, the poor, oppressed, and helpless 
Greeks, the Christian dogs, as they are contemp- 
tuously termed, should not have purchased a tem- 
porary quiet, by apostacy from the faith of their 
fathers ; and have saved their lives, every day in 
jeopardy, even at the distant sacrifice of their ever- 
lasting welfare. But in the midst of a fiery furnace, 
daily and nightly kindled ; in a den of lions, who de- 
voured when they pleased, and rested only when they 
were gorged, they have remained firm to their reli- 
gion, clouded with superstitions as it was ; and they 
have clung to the Cross, and died at its foot, rather 
than bow themselves towards Mecca, and seek the 
light of that pale crescent, striking emblem of a cold 
and cheerless religion.* 

On grounds like these, I might ask much more than 
the sympathies of a Christian people ; and I would not 
feel as if 1 should disgrace the Christian name, or the 
ministerial profession, if, from the very heights of 
Zion, I should, like another Peter, lift the blood- 
stained banner of the Cross, and cry, in the language 
of a heroine of old, " to the help of the Lord, to the 
help of the Lord, against the mighty." But no, — 
we ask not that the sword be drawn, we require no 
armament to be prepared. With their own rude 
arms, and their own quenchless ardour, must they, 

* Note G. 



21 

trusting in the Lord, and animated by the righteous- 
ness of their quarrel, carve their own way to liberty. 
But, we come to solicit for the wives and the children 
of these Christian martyrs, (oh! dire the necessity 
that compels such i people to ask such a favour,) some- 
thing to save them from the horrible catastrophe of fa- 
mine, more cruel than the sword. To you they are 
connected by a relationship, constituted by Him, who 
exhibited the charity of his death, to save their souls, 
as well as yours ; and who has made it one of the 
fundamental principles of his religion, that we should 
love the brethren. — Love, that tenderest, noblest, 
richest of the Christian graces. As if it were impos- 
sible for a Christian in such case to refuse the exer- 
cise of his benevolence, it is asked, *' If any man seeth 
his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion 
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ?" 

As a Christian people, we are *' born for their ad- 
versity ;" and ours should be the delightful work, of 
seeking td prepare the way, by which the religion of 
the Bible and the Cross, should once more prevail 
where formerly it was so nobly founded, and so 
purely professed. But who will there be, to re- 
ceive the benefits of a purer Christianity, if the sons 
of Greece become, as I fear they may, one band of 
martyrs? If they should fall beneath the red cymetar 
of the Turk, till they are exterminated. He, who 
once spake to fratricidal Cain, and said, in his thunder, 
•* the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from 
the ground," will speak to us in his wrath ; and visit 
on our heads the murder on which we looked, and in 
which we of course were partakers. But I wander, — 
pardon the enthusiasm, the folly, if you please; it is 
not the warrior sous of Christian Greece for whom I am 



23 

pleading, it is her matrons, her virgins and her chil- 
dren, hunted like the *' partridge on the mountains," 
and who, if unreliev.ed, will perish by famine, and 
leave their bodies to be devoured by the prowl- 
ing wolf or the expecting vulture. Yes, as a 
Christian people, I dare to proclaim, that we are 
born for their present adversity, and that we can 
only well discharge, the high and holy claims of 
the fraternity in which we stand, by our liberal 
benefactions. Could I believe in the greatest charity^, 
that all who hear me were the real children of God 
by faith in Christ Jesus, I would leave this matter 
without one additional observation ; for it may be 
laid down as a principle, that where grace reigns in 
the heart, benevolence richly flourishes ; and the claims 
of a Christian brother are never disregarded. 

Lastly, the Greeks are our brethren because they 
are in a condition of distress and suffering. 

It was a noble saying of an ancient, ^' I am a man, and 
therefore nothing which concerns humanity can be in- 
different to me."* If there ever was a people who, by 
their intensity of suffering, linked themselves to the 
sympathies of others, it is the people whose appeal is 
presented to you this evening. If there were no claims 
to your benevolence, founded on the political relation- 
ship they bear you ; if there were none founded on the 
religion of the Lord Jesus Christ which they, like you 
profess; the i^elationship of suffering constitutes a claim 
which finds its way to the heart of sensibility with a 
resistless impulse. They are a people in an extremity 
of suffering which language is too poor to repre- 
sent ; for it is not the mere fact, that they are con- 



23 

tending for those unalienable rights, "life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness,'' with a foe to whom 
mercy is a term unknown ; but they are famishing. If 
there was nothing against them but the odds of num- 
bers, we might safely leave them to that impulse of 
freedom, which makes each Greek a host within him- 
self; for the history of this struggle, is proof sufficient? 
that the spirit of Leonidas has not deserted the bloody 
pass of Thermopylae. There has been many a recent 
conflict which has emulated the bravery of Marathon 
and Platea. But they come to you as a people suffering 
the most aggravated distresses. Their land, in some of 
the late campaigns, has been so ravaged by the sword ; 
such ruthless desolation has marked the footsteps of the 
Turk, that nakedness and famine stare them in tbe 
face. The last wind which came across the blue 
wave of the Atlantic, brought us the intelligence of 
the sad predicament in which they stand. One of your 
own countrymen, who has nobly joined his fortunes 
with those of this suffering people, tells us, in a com- 
munication but just issued from the press, that Athens 
is beleaguered by the Turkish forces ; but with a 
judgment, formed by experience, he says, that the 
most terrible enemies of the Greeks, are cold and 
famine.* No crops have been raised, and the country 
is not in a condition to produce supplies of food ; for 
to the Turkish advance may be applied the language 
of the bard : — 

" Confusion in the van with flig^ht combin'd, 
"And sorrow's faded form and solitude behind." 

Yes, your countryman seems to think that the danger 
of Greece, is here concentrated; and that cold -and 

• Note I. 



24 

famine may do, what the army of the foe can never 
accomplish. The scenes of Scio may be acted 
over — (the blot of that day still stains the character 
of Christian Europe and America)— and in Athens may 
fall another Missolonghi. But cold-blooded murder, 
rapine, cities laid in ruins, are nothing against the 
cause of Greece, compared to the prospect of famine 
and of nakedness. These dispirit the energies of the 
soldier, and they unnerve his arm, not only by their 
eifects on his own person, but because they have in 
them a moral terror, as they bear their pressure ou 
the wives and daughters and children of the land. 
The feelings of the Greek, are, I firmly believe, wound 
up to any pitch of personal endurance ; but to see the 
helpless suffering, is more appalling than the num- 
bers and the ferocity of the Turks. Oh ! when 
I think of the condition in which many are now, 
and more will soon be placed, I feel as if I wish- 
ed for language which might have power to seize 
on every sympathy of your bosoms, and enlist 
them in this cause of suifering humanity. Oh ! how 
often, may such accumulated distress, bring once 
more to reality the scenes of Judea's desolation, when 
the city of the living God was beseiged by the armies 
of the conquering Titus. Then the sword from with- 
out, and the famine within, did their work of death. 
Famine ! I shudder as I remember the descrip- 
tion given by one who for his authority, combined 
the terms of prophecy with authentic history. A 
fragment of the direful story, is all that I dare to 
press as a tax upon your feelings, yet I give it, be- 
cause to this extremity is the Grecian mother verg- 
inoj : — 



25 

" We had gone forth in quest of food; 
And we had entered many a house, where men 
Were preying- upon meagre herbs and skins; 
And some were sating- upon loathsome things 
Unutterable — their ravening hunger — 

At her door, one met us, 
The tender and the delicate of women! 
She said, — We have feasted oft together. 
Most welcome warriors ! — And she led us. 
And made us sit like dear and honoured guests, 
While she made ready. Some among us wonder'd. 
That she had thus with provident care reserved, 
The choicest banquet for our scarcest days. 
But ever as she busily ministered. 
Quick — sudden sobs of laughter broke from her. 
At length, the vessels covering she raised up. 
And there it lay — 

The remnant of a child, 

A human child! — 

Then — then she shriek'd aloud, andclasp'd her hands, 
And cried — O dainty and fastidious appetites! 
The mother feasts upon her babe, and strangers 
Loathe the repast. — 

And then she said. 
My beautiful child — joy of my bosom! 
And then in her cool madness, did she spurn us 
Out from her doors."* 

Thousands of scenes like these will occur, unless^ 
by the hand of some generous charity, efforts be 
made to remove this pressure ; a pressure which now 
like the cold hand of death, lies on the very heart of 
Greece. 

That I have not in this division of my discourse 
misrepresented the actual condition of Greece, under 
Turkish oppression, you may learn from the corrobo- 
rating language of one of our country's greatest orators ; 
who dared in the Hall of Congress to give his testimo- 
ny in the cause of humanity. 

» Note K. 
D 



•4: 



26 

*^ Conquest and subjugation, as used among European 
states, are inadequate modes of expression by which 
to denote the dominion of the Turks. A conquest in 
the civilized world, is generally no more than an ac- 
quisition of a new part to the conquering country. 
It does not imply a never-ending bondage imposed 
upon the conquered, a perpetual mark, and oppro- 
brious distinction, between them and their masters ; 
a bitter and unending persecution of their religion ; 
an habitual violation of their rights of person and 
property, and the unrestrained indulgence towards 
them, of every passion, which belongs to the character 
of a barbarous soldiery. Yet, such is the state of 
Greece. The Ottoman power over them, obtained 
originally by the sword, is constantly preserved by 
the same means. Wherever it exists, it is a mere 
mi'itary power. The religious and civil code of the 
state, being both fixed in the Alcoran, and equally 
the object of an ignorant and furious faith, have been 
found equally incapable of change. <The Turk,' 
it has been said, ^ has been encamped in Europe for 
four centuries.' He has hardly any more partici- 
pation in European manners, knowledge, and arts, 
than when he crossed the Bosphorus. But this is 
not the worst of it. The power of the Empire is 
fallen into anarchy, and as the principle which be- 
longs to the head, belongs also to the parts, there are 
as many despots, as there are pachas, beys and viziers. 
Wars are almost perpetual, between the Sultan and 
some rebellious governor of a province ; and in the 
conflict of these despotisms, the people are neces- 
sarily ground between the upper and the nether mill- 
stone. In short, the Christian subjects of the sublime 
porte, feel daily all the miseries^ which flow from 



27 

despotism, from anarchy, from slavery, and from re- 
ligious persecution. If any thing yet remains to 
heighten such a picture, let it be added, that every 
oJBGice in the government, is not only actually, but 
professedly venal ; the pachalics, the visierates, the 
cadiships, and whatsoever other denomination may 
denote the depositary of power. In the whole world, 
there is no such oppression felt^ as by the Christian 
Greeks. In various parts of India, to be sure, the 
government is bad enough ; but then it is the govern- 
ment of barbarians over barbarians, and the feeling 
of oppression is of course not so keen. There the 
oppressed, are perhaps not better than their op- 
pressors ; but in the case of Greece, there are mil- 
lions of Christian men, not without knowledge, not 
without refinement, not without a strong thirst for all 
the pleasures of civilized life, trampled into the very 
earth, century after century, by a pillaging, savage, 
relentless soldiery. The case is unique. There ex- 
ists, and has existed nothing like it. The world has 
no such misery to show ; there is no case in which 
Christian communities can be called upon with such 
emphasis of appeal. 

" I am not of those who would, in the hour of utmost 
peril, withhold. such encouragement as might be pro- 
perly and lawfully given, and when the crisis should 
be past, overwhelm the rescued sufferer, with kind- 
ness and caresses. The Greeks address the civilized 
world with a pathos, not easy to be resisted. They 
invoke our favour by more moving considerations, 
than can well belong to the condition of any other 
people. They stretch out their arms to the Chris- 
tian communities of the earth, beseeching them, by a 
generous recollection of their ancestors, by the con- 



28 

sideration of their own desolated and ruined cities 
and villages, by their wives and children, sold into 
an accursed slavery,, by their own blood, which they 
seem willing to pour out like water, by the common 
faith, and in the name which unites all Christians, that 
they would extend to them, at least some token of 
their compassionate regard."* 

I have now, my friends, placed before you, the 
principal relations by which the Greeks are united 
to us, as our brethren ; and I have sought to show you 
the duty which rises out of such relationship. It is 
gratifying to remark, that in plans of beneficence like 
this^ there is a promptitude in the people of our coun- 
try, which is truly national. Let but the tale of any 
great public calamity reach our ears, and our people 
are instantly on the alert, to mitigate the evil. In 
reference to the subject especially before us, a gener- 
ous movement of compassion seems to have pervaded 
the land ; and one feeling of the necessity of some ac- 
tive exertion to meet the urgency of the case, appears 
to animate almost every bosom. I need not seek to 
stimulate your efforts by pointing you to what has else- 
where been accomplished ; and I would that the rival- 
ry, which exists between yours and a sister city, were 
always in so good a cause. But what others have 
done, is a matter of small moment to us ; our obliga- 
tions are not to be graduated, nor our sensibility mea- 
sured by efforts elsewhere made. The plain path of 
duty, which is before us, and the urgent claims of our 
perishing brethren, are suflicient to stimulate us to 
the most intense exertion. As to a people then, 
whose sympathies have already been awakened into 
effort, I might safely leave the cause to plead in its 

* Note L. 



29 

own resistless language; for there is no eloquence 
equal to the eloquence of the fact, that these poor vic- 
tims of Turkish oppression, who now lift the suppli- 
cating voice to you, are your brethren. Yes, they 
are dear to you, on the score of the common relation- 
ship of man to man ; still more dear, because the very 
height of their earthly ambition is, from the deepest 
debasement of slavery, to attain a liberty, which ren- 
ders our country, the oasis of the world. They arc 
still more dear, because, though it is under the dark- 
ness of superstition, they profess the same religion 
on which our fondest, brightest hopes are built. As 
men, in whose bosoms the common feelings of humani- 
ty are not yet blunted, I ask you for a liberal bene- 
faction. As Americans, who would desire that the 
genial influence of liberty should be felt by others as 
well as by yourselves, I call you to a patriotic effort. 
As inhabitants of a city, whose name is synony- 
mous with kindliness and charity, I ask you not to dis- 
appoint the high wrought expectations of the coun- 
try. But, when I come to you, and make the appeal 
of the suffering Greeks, because you are a people, 
called by the name of Christians, 1 feel as if I had a 
demand upon you for a peculiar sympathy ; and I 
come to you with this cause, in the name of Him 
whose command is the real Christian's law. Is it a 
small thing, that a people blessed as you are, sh.iuld 
see their brethren perishing by famine ? Let me tell 
you that the Greeks are a spectacle to the world, of a 
daily martyrdom for the faith of Christianity. It is 
their profession of the religion of the Cross, which, 
from the fall of Constantinople, four hundred years 
ago, to the present hour, has armed against them the 
wildest fanatacism, and the fiercest vengeance of the 



30 

Turk. Let them renounce the religion for which 
they have poured out so much blood, and wept so 
many tears; let them but bow the knee in the name 
of Mecca's prophet, and the deed of apostacy would 
change every foe into a friend. Living, as you do, 
in the full enjoyment of religious liberty, you can- 
not estimate the magnitude of the trial which they 
are compelled to endure ; and your conceptions 
cannot reach the sublimity of the sacrifices they are 
daily making. Oh, if there are any in this assembly, 
whose hearts are warmed by the love of Christ, can 
you withstand the appeal of the martyr, as his im- 
ploring eyes are cast upon the naked and the famish- 
ing? If there is one pang, which rends the bosom of 
the patriot Greek with unutterable anguish, it is that 
which arises from the anticipated wretchedness of 
their condition, whom he is compelled to leave be- 
hind him to the merciless foe, or the horrible alter- 
native of want. Could he but be assured that the 
hand of benevolence would discharge the sacred duty 
of clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry, one 
portion of bitterness would be abstracted from his 
overflowing cup. And will ye not do it? 

This evening, brethren, we sit in the house of 
God; peace and quietness reign in this large and 
populous city ; at our homes, we have left, with the 
fearless confidence of freedom, (oh! blessed be God, 
for that precious privilege,) many relations and 
friends ; and our children with none to harm them, 
are now tasting the balmy delights of nature's sweet 
restorer. When we return, we shall meet them, 
as they were left, — in safety! What! have we 
no gratitude, that God hath cast our lot in a land 
so secure, so blessed ? But, mark the terrific con- 



31 

trast of your suffering brethren. At this very mo- 
ment! ay, while I am speaking to you this evening, 
they enjoy not one blessing in common with you, save 
that, which not even Turkish oppression can de- 
stroy, the privilege of a secret prayer! But, now, 
while all is quiet here, and all security at home, 
are there thousands of fathers and brothers in the 
tented field, ready for the mortal conflict ; and they 
shall never see, *' or wife, or children more, or 
friends, or sacred home." To-morrow the life-blood 
of their hearts may hallow the soil which it flowed to 
rescue. This moment, in the cities and villages of 
Greece, as yet not swept with the " besom of destruc- 
tion," is many a Grecian mother, who, as she strives 
to sooth her unconscious babe to sleep, knows not 
whether it shall see the light of another day ; she 
knows not but that her eye, which now in the in- 
tensity of agony, watches its soft slumbers, may, 
ere the morrow, through their own death- film, see 
the Turkish ataghan pierce its tender bosom. Yes, 
and when you retire from this church, as the even- 
ing chill forces you to draw the provided cover- 
ing closer round your bosoms, oh ! spare one thought 
to those, w^ho, in the mountain fastnesses of Greece, 
feel on their houseless heads, the frost ; and through 
whose scanty vestments the night-wind finds an un- 
resisted passage. To-morrow, when it comes to you, 
will come with comforts, and with blessings multi- 
plied, but to them it will bring no cheering ; for to 
the cold and nakedness of the night will succeed the 
famine of the day ; and the limbs which have rested on 
the cold damp earth, and the head which is pillowed 
on the naked and inhospitable rock, will find no re- 
spite from pain and wretchedness ; because, when 



32 

the broken sleep is over, hunger and thirst will urge 
their unpitying claims. But, brethren, why should 
I speak thus? Oh ! thou most merciful Father of us 
all, is it necessary that such unwearied efforts should 
be made to induce a people like these assembled, to 
feel for the perishing, the tenderness of pity? Breth- 
ren, I beseech you, by all the mercies of that God 
who hath blessed you with an unsparing hand, turn 
not an ear of indifference to this call of your brother, 
naked, destitute, desolate and perishing ! All that he 
asks for himself, for wife and children, suffering the 
accumulated horrors of war, of cold, and of famine, 
amounts to but little more than one morsel of bread, 
and one cup of water. Let it ring in your ears, that 
your brother is perishing ; and the once proud, the 
herioc Greek, sues to the freeborn Christian son of 
America, for the crumbs which fall from his table. 
Are you not born for this, their season of adversity ? 
Can you be called to the exercise of a higher and a 
nobler beneficence? Yes, let the world be told, that, 
though considerations of national policy may have 
forbidden an armed interference in this desperate 
struggle for life and liberty, the People of the land 
have, as by one noble, one majestic, one simulta- 
neous movement, answered to the call of Greece, 
by a charity as extensive as the need. I will not 
fear to put this case into your hands, and trust 
you for the issue. You will generously prove the 
birth -right privilege of assistance to the needy and 
the famishing. You will commission some swift mes- 
senger, whose feet shall be beautiful upon the moun- 
tains ; you will exhibit to the world that spectacle of 
the moral sublime, the sympathies of a people roused 
to intense exertion. You will give wings to some well 



33 

appointed vessel, and she shall bear over the bosom of 
the mighty deep, the burden of your generosity ; and 
the prayer of the pious, will go up before the mercy 
seat, that God may speed her on the way. 

Perhaps, my brethren, when your bounty shall 
have reached that land of desolation and of death, the 
fate of Greece will have been decided ; and the 
cymetars of the Turks again made drunk in the blood 
of her sons and daughters. If it should be so ! — if 
these barbarians should have become the unresisted 
masters of Greece, and her epitaph have been written 
in her blood ; then, one noble satisfaction will be 
yours, that you have discharged a high, a sacred duty. 
You will have washed from your hands all the guilt 
of blood. But, my friends, I anticipate for Greece a 
brighter destiny. I will not allow such dark and dis- 
mal forebodings ; for though the cloud is heavy, and 
though torrents fall, and though the lurid lightning 
descend'j, and though the thunder rolls, — hope spreads 
one line of light upon the bosom of the storm ; and an- 
ticipation paints the rainbow on the cloud as it re- 
treats, far, far away. Oh, if the sun of freedom shall 
once more pour on this land its full, warm, vivifying 
beam ; if the way shall be prepared by which institu- 
tions like our own can be established, where Solon and 
Lycurges legislated ; if facilities are offered, by which 
the religion of the Son of God, in all its knowledge and 
holiness and purity, shall take the place of ignorance 
and superstition, and pollution ; and the Greek experi- 
ence that moral transformation which qualifies him by 
the new created nobility of his spiritual condition to rank 
with the people of the Most High God, both here and 
hereafter; and if all these things should come to pass 
through your instrumentality, blessed, thrice blessed, 



34 

will be the effort. Oh, yes ! if your sympathy, now 
awakened, should rouse the almost despairing energy 
of the Greek to more.intense exertion; should it kindle 
the animation of hope on the patriot's brow, and nerve 
him to a deeper struggle ; should it sustain but for a 
little while the needy and famishing; should your 
bread, now about to be »' cast upon the waters," return 
to you ere many days, in the recovered liberties, in 
the regenerated Christianity, in the new found happi- 
ness of Greece ; never — never would it be among the 
regrets of your life, but rather among your brighest 
reminiscences, that on this night, hallowed in the his- 
tory of your benevolence, yon gave — and gave, not 
with a niggard parsimony, but a liberal, open hand, 
to clothe your naked, feed your famishing brother » 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. — Seepages. 

The readerneed not be directed to the passage alluded to. It 
is too common to require a remark. Lord Byron was the f7'iend 
of Greece, but the enemy of mankind. With him, as is well 
observed, '' the mental grandeur of the man, and the elevation 
of his character, consist, not in devotedness of heart and soul, 
to ever}"^ thing laudable, and lovely; not in cultivating either 
the milder or more vigorous graces of his better nature; not in 
the will to act virtuously and to suffer patiently; but in his 
power to be greatly evil, and to endure the consequences of 
his daring, in stern obduracy." Alfieri, according the quo- 
tation of his noble admirer, has said, " La pianta uomo mase 
piu robusta in Italia che in qualunque altra terra — e che gli 
stessi atroci delitti che vi si commettono ne sono una prova." 
In the latter part of this remark, Alfieri might have embodied 
a prevailing sentiment of Lord Byron, that mental vigour and 
energy may be estimated, even by the extent of crime. The 
writer has been struck with a remark in the review of Mrs. 
Heman's Poems, in the American Quarterly Revievv, just pub- 
lished in this city, from the Press of Messrs. Carey & Lea. 
" Genius,'' says the reviewer, " can, it is true, of itself attract 
attention; but cannot win continued and universal admiration, 
except in alliance with virtue." 

Note B. — See page 10. 

See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, voL 
YI. chapter 68th. The General assault on Ccmstantinople on 
the morning of the 29th of May, the death of Constantine Pa- 
laelogus, the pillage of the city and the captivity of the Greeks^ 
are told with extraordinary pathos. 

Note C. — See page 12. 

It is melancholy, that the Greeks should have had to deal, 
not only with the cruelty of the Turks, but with the rapacity 
of many, who have stood out in the character o{ friends. We 
are not aware that any of the monies raised by means of cha 
ritable exertions have been misapplied. But the money which 
was procured by loans, has been most sadly wasted: or rather 



36 

has served to enrich aijents at the expense of those for whose 
benefit it was intended. It is not meant to enter into the 
contioversj about the Greek Frigates, the reproach of which 
will be hardly wiped away by the great exertions lately made 
in New York. We would direct the attention of our readers 
to a very lucid exposition of this v/hole subject, contained in 
the first number of the American Quarterly Review, before 
alluded to. The article affords ample illustration of the 
correct accommodation of the passage of Scripture to which 
this note is attached. The writer of the Review con- 
cludes his article in these words, " We believe we hazard 
liothing in asserting, that the general sentiment of our 
country is that of disapprobation and regret. No American 
Journal has uttered a word in extenuation of the obliquityj 
many of our public writers have stigmatized it; not a voice 
has pronounced a favourable sentence, but from the circle of 
the parties. The only instance in which we could render to 
the Greeks any substantial service, has manifestly been per- 
verted by private cupidity to unwarrantable emolument; a 
profit of 80,000 dollars made out of their distresses by their 
mercantile correspondents, the ' diplomatic agents' of the 
arbitrators; 50,000 dollars extorted for the use of ship-yards, 
and personal services of the owners, without expending any of 
their own money; 10,000 dollars, the sine qua non of a captain 
of the United States' Navy, for superintending an operation in 
* a just and sacred cause;' 4,500 dollars imposed on them by 
arbitrators, for the dedication of a few days to the dispensation 
of justice ! This disgraceful catalogue needs not to be extend- 
ed. If these pamphlets, and this review of them, should ever 
reach the shores of Greece, the bitter sensations which will be 
excited by the exposure of the transaction, may perhaps be 
alleviated by the assurance, that here sympathetic feelings also 
are found." 

Note J). — Seepage 13. 

The term, "Greek revolt," is used because their present 
conflict is generally so spoken of; but it is unquestionably a 
misnomer, highly injurious to this noble cause. It is hoped 
that the reader will excuse some little enlargement on this 
subject, as it is the wish of the writer to present it in as 
favourable a light as possible. To constitute a people in a 
state of revolution, it is necessary that there should have 
been a previously acknowledged and uninterrupted rule. The 
war of independence was, in reference to ourselves, a revolt^ 
because the authority of the mother country was an authority 
established by original colonization and consent. But not so 
the Greeks ; for it may be proved, on historical grounds, that 
the Turks were never considered in the light of legitimat' 



37 

fulers ; and from none other can there be a revolt. Where 
legitimni" ruu-. is to be established by the right of conquest, it 
is essential that the subjugation should be entirej and that all 
traces of usurpation have disappeared. This never was the 
condition of the Greeks; for in the impressive language of their 
own writers, it is said that *' Greece never signed the sentence 
of her own slavery." This country has never been quietly in 
possession of the Turks. Before as well as after their aban- 
donment by the Russians, there have been continual though 
ineffectual struggles for independence ; and these struggles 
were as the voice of the nation, protesting against Turkish 
usurpation. In Epii"us the spirit of Scandeberg was never 
altogether extinguished; and the unsubdued mountaineers in 
the recesses of Taygetus, might as justly be considered the true 
representatives of the Greek Christians, as the bands ofPela- 
gius, in the Asturian mountain, of the Spanish Christians. A 
descent from their mountains to plant the Cross above the 
crescent, was just as lawful in the one case as the other. In- 
deed the case of the Greeks is the stronger, for, when in the 
beginning of the eighth century the Saracens subverted the 
empire of the Visigoths in Spain, Abdallah, the Moor, mar- 
ried the widow of King Rodrigo, who had been slain, and 
thus united the kingdoms of Spain and Morocco. But, one 
little territory among the rocky mountains of Asturia main- 
tained its allegiance to its Christian Prince Pelagius, and was 
never subdued; and, under Alphonso the Chaste, the Chris- 
tians descending from the mountains, made powerful encroach- 
ments on the Moorish dominion. Little, however, was done 
from the middle of the eighth to the middle of the tenth centu- 
ries. At this time, the Moorish dominions were split among 
a number of petty sovereigns, though they still possessed 
three-fourths of Spain. It was not till 1491, that these were 
completely subverted by Ferdinand and Isabella. This state of 
things had existed 800 years, during the whole of which time, 
the voice of these Christians, and their continual struggle, had 
been against their usurpers. No one calls this a rfvolt^ and yet 
in what does it differ from the situation of the Greeks, except m 
this, that the Moorish domination was of a milder character ? 
This still more strengthens the Greek cause. Grotius, in his 
fourth book De Jure, &c. observes, "si bello injusto et cui juris 
gentium requisitanon adsintimperium arrepuit,(invasor,) nequc 
pactio ulla sequita sit, aut fides illi data, sed solo vi retineatur 
possessio videter manere belli jus." To the writer, therefore, 
revolt appears to be a term not proper, as applied to the Greek 
struggle; for they have never acknowledged masters. An 
article in the British Review for November, 1823, entitled 
*' Greece," is a masterly exposition of the whole subject. 



38 

Note E.— See page IB, 

One of the most important works of the age is " Foster's 
Essays on Popular Ignorance." A work which cannot but 
have a powerful effect wherever it is disseminated. The 
reader, who would be pleased with some most judicious dis- 
quisitions in a popular form, would be well repaid the trouble 
of reading also two sermons of Rev. Francis Wayland, deli- 
vered in Boston, on the 7th of April, 1825, being Fast Day. 

From a note attached to these sermons the following impor- 
tant and interesting facts are gathered, relating to the means 
of disseminating knowledge by the press. " Until about 30 
years, the Gentleman's Magazine was almost the only ex- 
tensively circulated periodical pamphlet in Great Britain. In 
this department of literature are now numbered, the Edinburg 
and Quarterly Reviews; Westminster Review; Blackwood's, 
Thd Scotsman's, Monthly, New Monthly, Gentleman's, and 
Sporting Magazines; The Christian Observer; Eclectic Re- 
view; Universal Review; The Etonian; The Oxonian; Acker- 
man's Repository; Retrospective Review; London Magazinej 
Baldwin's Magazine; The Churchman; Evangelical Magazine; 
Mechanic's Magazine; The Literary Chronicle; The Literary 
Gazette; The Kaleidoscope; New Castle Magazine; British 
Critic; Pamphleteer; Classical Journal; Christian Guardian; 
Cottager's Magazine; Farmer's Magazine; Sunday School Ma- 
gazine; European Magazine; Imperial Magazine; Literary 
Magnet; Knight's Quarterly Magazine; four Botanical Jour- 
nals, monthly; three of general science, quarterly; besides 
several other scientific and professional periodical works. 
Some of these are splendidly edited; many ably, and most M'ell, 
supported. The largest works print from 5 to 14,000 copies. 

Upon the eight morning and six evening papers in London, 
there are no less than 150 literary gentlemen employed, at an 
expense of ^61000 per week; for workmen, J1500 per week; 
and d6l500 more for the literary labours of the weekly and 
semi-weekly papers. Tliere are, on an average, 250 provincial 
papers: 300,000 papers are ordinarily printed in London 
weekly, and 200.000 in the country; total, 500,000. The 
whole amount of the expenses of the British Newspaper press 
is estimated at £721,266 per annum. The total number of 
newspaper stamps issued in Great Britain, for the year 1821, 
was 24,779,786 

From these facts we may form some idea of the demand for 
information in Great Britian. But one other fact may con- 
vince us, that the number of readers very far exceeds the num- 
ber of printed papers. It is there a custom for carriers to set 
out in all directicins daily, and let papers out to customers, for 
a few moments to each, as thcv proceed, until nisht: so thar 



39 

a hundred persons may read or rather glance over the same 
paper for a penny each. 

There are but few papers published in the departments of 
France, but those in the metropolis publish an enormous num- 
ber. The Constitutionel publishes 19,000; the Journal Des 
Debats 14,000, and the other papers from that to 5,000 It 
is probable that the ratio of improvement in many nations on 
the continent of Europe, is not very far beneath that of Great 
Britian. 

Note F. — Seepage 17. 

If any reader should desire fui-ther satisfaction on the sub- 
ject, he may be referred to the work of Platon, late Metropo- 
litan of Moscow, "On the Christian Divinity." As to the 
fundamental principles of the corruption of human nature, jus- 
tification by faith, &c. there is great clearness and precision. 
The work has been ably translated from the Slavonian by 
Robert Pinkerton, the indefatigable agent of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, who laboured so successfully in Russia. 
It was printed in this country in 1815, by Collins '& Co. New 
York. 

Note G. — See page 20. 

The short paragraph to which this note refers, is taken from 
a discourse delivered by the writer in St Andrew's church, on 
the 18th of January, 1824; when the sum of 250 dollars was 
generously given by the congregation to the Greek fund then 
raised. The discourse was printed at the request of the vestry. 
As the passage may be rememberefl by some who have read 
both discourses, this explanation has been thought expedient. 

Note H. — See page 22. 

" Homo sum; et humani a me nil alienum puto." — Terence. 

Note I. — See page 23. 

The document referred to is the letter of Dr. S. G. Howe, 
dated Napoli, October i6th, 1826, the postcript to which is as 
follows: — 

P S. I cannot forbear to repeat, what I had stated in former 
letters, that the worst foes with wiiich the Greeks have to con- 
tena, are starvation and nakedness. The crops in many parts 
of the country are cut off by the operation of war, and all the 
population in those parts of the country occupied by the enemy 
is driven to the mountains. The little surplus produce which 
can be raised, will barely be sufficient for the first months of 
■vinter, and nothing but the succours of the friends of Greece, 



40 

in Europe, and may I not add America, will be able to avert 
all the horro! s of famine the ensuing spring. 

Note K. — See page 25. 

This extract is from the " Fall of Jerusalem," by Rev. H. H. 
Milinan. The form has been varied a little, to adapt it to the 
intended purpose. It is a high wrought picture of famine and 
founded on the prophecy which is contained in Deuteronomy, 
£8th chapter, and 56th and 57th verses. Perhaps the most ter- 
rific view of the horrors of famine in our language is to be found 
in one short interrogatory in the 20th verse of the 2d chapter 
of the Lamentations of Jei'emiah; in which the women, in the 
extremity of their distress, are represented as eating their own 
infants as soon as they were born. Scott remarks upon this 
passage, that it is an intimation which fills the mind with the 
utmost horror; and implies the greatest possible extreme of 
earthly misery, inducing desperation and barbarity; and our 
thoughts recoil from it as too shocking to be dwelt upon. Yet 
in the struggle which the Greeks are making, many scenes of 
a similar character to this must occur, if the war should be 
protracted and no succours afforded. The sensation of hunger 
is described as so horrible in itself, that it produces, when in 
extremity, absolute madness; and the suffering is so great that 
nothing is too loathsome to prevent being resorted to as an al- 
leviation from the terrible distress. 

Note L. — Seepage 28. 

See Mr Webster's speech in the House of Representives, 
on the 19th of January, 1824, when the following resolution, 
offered by that gentleman, was taken up in committee of the 
whole. 

'^^ Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for 
defraying the expense incident to the appointment of an agent 
or commissioner to Greece, whenever the President shall deem 
it expedient to make such appointment." 

For this document, as well as others relating to the Greek 
cause, the writer acknowledges his obligation to the politeness 
of Mathew Carey, Esq. 



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